Page 16 of The Ferro Family (Secrets and Lies 3)

; “I’m fine.” I can’t talk about this with him. I look like a loser, and I can’t stand it. “I’ll see you later.”

As I walk away, I hear his voice behind me. “Come a little early if you can. I’d like to talk to you.”

Chapter 15

“What a bitch!” Beth is fuming. “She threw a slab of bacon at you?”

“It's not like it was huge. It was just a quarter of a pound.” I’m finishing up my hair and makeup before I head to be the model again. I think of the money—it’d be nice to have a pair of jeans again. Mom and Matt will be here in two days. I can’t walk around in sweats the entire time. I need to look like I’m holding it together, even if I am getting hit with breakfast meats as I cross campus.

Beth is sitting on my bed and rocks back, laughing. “That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“Then you haven’t known me very long.” I turn toward her and smile. “Listen, I’m not going to let her get to me. Besides, I found an amazing place for the meat.” I point under Chelsey’s bed.

Beth’s jaw drops. “You did not!” She jumps up to see what I did, rushes to the other bed, drops to her knees and looks for it. “I can’t see it.”

I grin. “I know. It’s between her bedding and the mattress. Her bed is going to smell like bacon for the rest of the year, and she’ll have a big ugly oil stain on her pretty sheets. What goes around comes around.”

Beth gets up and walks over to the mirror. “I think Karma is supposed to take care of the bacon bitchslapping in its own time, but I like how you helped it along. Good thing you haven’t been sleeping here much. Hey, isn’t your mom going to sleep there this weekend?”

I shake my head. “No, I told her she can’t stay with me, so she got a hotel.”

“That makes it easier.”

I frown. “Not really. What am I supposed to do with that? I’m not over Matt. I want to be, but I’m still hung up on him.”

“What about Nate?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. That can’t go anywhere. I thought Matt would be my everything. I’m sick of being so incredibly wrong, you know?”

“That’s why you should just have fun for a while. Stop thinking about everything and just do what you want.” She tucks her feet under her butt as she sits on my bed.

“That’s not bad advice.” I turn back to her with one eye lined black and the other bare.

“You get some brothers, and we’ll talk.” She pauses for a few moments and then says, “If you like Josh, and you want to be with him—”

I’m holding the mascara wand and nearly stab myself in the eye. I whirl around and laugh. “He’s not my type. You don’t have to worry about that. Like ever.”

“But you kissed him, right?”

“I was drugged. I would have kissed Chelsey that night.”

Beth makes a face and sticks out her tongue. “Fine. But if you change your mind, don’t hide it from me, okay? I’d rather know why you suddenly stop being friends with me. It’s happened before, hence the request.”

“You have nothing to worry about. You’re stuck with me.”

Chapter 16

Beth drives me across campus to the art building. The sun has set and the streetlights are glowing dimly. As I slip out of her car, she leans over and says, “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to—there are other ways to talk to him.”

“I know, but this is fine.”

“It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only seconds to destroy it. Make sure you figure out the fastest way to trash it. We need to flambé mine tomorrow. I need a makeover. I’m sick of being the good-girl hippy-chick. I want to dress like Catwoman in black leather and freaky nails. Rraarr,” she says, pawing the air like a cat.

I laugh and shake my head. “Deal. Go shopping with me. We can both pick out some new stuff. Just remember we’ll be shopping from the super-sale, double-discounted clearance racks they put on the sidewalk in hopes a hobo will steal the merchandise.”

“Awesome! That means the odds of finding weird clothes are even better! Maybe I should go for hobo glam? What do you think?”